The Unity of Things: Lotze, James and Ward

The Unity of Things: Lotze, James and Ward

Mark Textor

What makes some things parts of a unity? The German philosopher and psychologist Hermann Lotze (1817-81) argued that some things compose to one only if there is a perceiver that unifies them. This idealistic view of composition influenced American Pragmatists as well as Cambridge psychologists. I will examine Lotze’s arguments and show how this view of composition plays out in the work of William James and James Ward. I will pay special attention to the import of Lotze’s view for the development of empirical psychology.